Gregory's Mom: I Did My Best - Others Disagree

For more than an hour Thursday, Rachel Kingsley made the best case she could to get her 12-year-old son back from foster parents trying to adopt him.

Kingsley calmly and methodically described her efforts as a poor, single mother struggling to raise three hyperactive boys. She dabbed at tears as she told about not being able to talk to her son while he was in state care.

''They told me he didn't want to speak to me,'' she said.

And then, just as calmly and methodically, lawyers representing Gregory introduced witness after witness to slowly tear apart her story. Social service counselors, friends and even former relatives described Kingsley as a drunk, a drug user, a thief, a prostitute and a selfish mother.

A former co-worker said Kingsley often smoked marijuana in front of the children, and a former sister-in-law said of Gregory, ''I hope he stays where he is.''

The object of all this debate played and whispered much of the time with his foster sisters. Wearing a turquoise dress shirt, khaki pants and a blue-based flowered tie, Gregory later sat with his lawyers, writing or drawing on notebook paper.

While his mother was on the stand, he often stared at her, expressionless, for minutes at a time.

Kingsley, on the other hand, rarely looked at Gregory.

In the first case of its kind in the country, Gregory's lawyer, Jerri Blair of Tavares, and his foster father, George Russ of Fruitland Park, are trying to persuade Orange Circuit Judge Thomas Kirk to end Kingsley's parental rights. Russ and his wife, Lizabeth, Gregory's foster parents for 11 months, then want Kirk to let them adopt the boy.

Children's rights advocates are hoping the case will give youngsters greater court protection against abusive parents. Others say the case could set a dangerous precedent by allowing children to sue their parents.

Kingsley wants Gregory returned to her St. Louis home, where she lives with a boyfriend and two other sons. A settlement offer she had proposed before the trial was dismissed after Jane Carey, Kingsley's lawyer, chose not to argue it after hearing Gregory had rejected it.

Since age 4, Gregory has lived just seven months with his mother. He spent some of the remaining time with his father and the rest in state foster homes after twice being put there by Kingsley.

Kingsley said she kept a good home for her three sons in the mid-1980s in Missouri and in the late 1980s in Osceola and Orange counties. She said she put her sons in foster care in 1989 and 1990 because she could not make enough as a waitress to support them.

She said she took parenting classes, got counseling, underwent alcohol evaluation and got a steady job so she could get her sons back. Gregory's brother, Jeremiah, was returned to Kingsley in April.

Kingsley quietly but firmly denied a barrage of accusations leveled at her by Blair.

''You used alcohol and drugs frequently, did you not?'' Blair asked.

''No, I did not.''

''Your children were left home alone frequently while you went out and drank, were they not?''

''No, they were not.''

''You remember sleeping with different men for money while the children were in the house, don't you?''

''Absolutely not.''

Kingsley said she has a good home with her boyfriend, Steve Hack, and has learned to take care of her sons. She briefly dabbed her eyes to hold back tears when she talked about trying to contact Gregory while he was in foster care last year.

''I never did get a chance to speak to him,'' she said, her voice shaking. ''They told me he didn't want to speak to me.''

The next witness, Jeanette Glynn, formerly married to Kingsley's brother, challenged that story.

Around 1984 and 1985, Glynn said, when Kingsley lived alone with all three of her sons in Missouri, Kingsley's home was so dirty that ''there were crumbs and everything all over the carpet, food that hadn't been wiped off cabinets.''

The three boys often were unwashed and their hair was uncombed, and Kingsley often left them home alone while she went out drinking, Glynn said.

Glynn said she often saw ''men come out of the bedroom, different men. Sometimes they would give her money.''

Glynn also talked about Kingsley's smoking marijuana in front of the children.

''There would be parties with loud music, drinking and smoking and the kids would be running in and out,'' she said.

When Blair asked her why she got involved, she began crying.

''I just feel like Gregory hasn't had a chance,'' she said, sobbing. ''Now he has a chance to be happy and I hope he stays where he is. She wasn't there for them.''

Blair then called three waitresses who worked with Kingsley at an Orlando restaurant in 1990, when she got her children back after the first time she put them in foster care.

During that time, the three women said, Kingsley often went out drinking - Cuervo Gold Tequila was her drink of choice - and talked about how she did not make enough money to care for three boys.